Jun Takahashi, designer of Japanese brand UNDER COVER, in a span of just 16 years has made a unique passage, from fashion college student to the ultimate creator of emotional and evocative fashion of our times. Many fashion designers spend years developing their skills and techniques as assistants at established fashion houses before they are able to launch their own brands. However, Takahashi set up UNDER COVER in the company of friends while he was still a student at the Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo; and in April of 1988 started creating and selling hand-made T-shirts. Takahashi began his wholesale operation in 1991, and gradually became a leader on the forefront of Tokyo street style. It wasn’t before too long, in the A/W season of 1994 that Takahashi participated in Tokyo Fashion Week, and in the same year officially founded UNDER COVER co. ltd. After many years of perseverance as an independent designer in Tokyo, Takahashi broke through onto the international fashion scene by presenting his collection in Paris for the S/S of 2003. Riding the wave of Japanese street fashion, Takahashi’s work is the perfect example of the ephemeral shift from image-oriented to emotional and evocative. He represents a generation of youth in Tokyo that has adopted the punk rock mentality, a pop culture that welcomes the exaggeration of an ‘everything goes’ thematic irony and rebels against social norms, expressed on the street. Despite the commercialization of this aesthetic, Takahashi’s work has never been contrived; it comes out from his authentic love for music, interpretation of styles and a reality that he actually lives. We can hardly call the leaps and bounds of this designer an evolution, but it can be said that this street fashion designer has emerged into a leader of high fashion’s avant-garde, crossing over and using many different mediums to express his highly conceptual ideas, including limitless drawings and paintings, doll-making, furniture design and collaborations with other designers of international fame. In his latest collection, Purple, the taste from the street has nearly disappeared. Takahashi said that he noticed that femininity and sexuality were missing in the collections of UNDER COVER, and needed to express that in order to take the brand to the next level. He sought to attract his audience and tug at their emotions; something to make us say, “We want it. Right away”. In the past, the unique style and presentation of UNDER COVER has always challenged its audience, and now has made a complete change focusing more on high fashion. However, the reaction of the press was extremely good and Takahashi is quite pleased of the outcome as well. Of course, constant change is the fate of fashion, but a drastic change is always accompanied by a huge risk; but this is a risk Takahashi made outright, and from this we can still feel the punk spirit of aggressive street fashion. Takahashi’s talent, his endless craving to create, and his expression of emotion go far beyond fashion design. This charming young man dressed in black creates the surprising, the enchanting, sometimes disturbing, yet always powerful images on which we will surely continue to feast our eyes.